US life sciences investor MPM Capital has completed its first UK investment with the close of a £31.6 million (€46 million; $58 million) series B financing of Milton Park, Oxford-headquartered drug discovery company Oxagen.
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Oxagen’s lead programme has the potential to create major drugs for the treatment of asthma.
The financing round, reportedly the largest biopharmaceutical investment in the UK and Europe so far this year, was joined by existing investors: 3i, Abingworth, Advent Ventures, SV Life Sciences and The Wellcome Trust.
New investors in the company, which was established in April 1997, included Bessemer Venture Partners, International Bio Trust (IBT) and Red Abbey.
Proceeds from the funding will be used to expand the company’s clinical and pre-clinical stage portfolio and advance Oxagen’s lead programme, a small molecule anti-inflammatory for asthma.
Commenting on the funding, Luke Evnin, general partner at MPM Capital and who will join the board of Oxagen, said in a statement: “Oxagen’s lead programme has the potential to create major drugs for the treatment of asthma. We expect the company’s portfolio of other genetically validated therapeutic targets to form the basis of a broad pipeline targeting important unmet medical needs.”
With offices in Boston and San Francisco, MPM Capital specialises in investing in biopharmaceutical and medical device companies and manages more than $2.1 billion in assets.
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